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My friend has just put together a terrarium like the Martha Stewart type. You know the kind, like Anno uses. A rack/shelf system that fits inside a portable closet w. plastic/vinyl surrounding it and zips up to keep out contams. Some general questions: Where should the hose from the humidifier go into the terrarium, my friend has seen it going into the side and into the top, or does it matter?? That's really the only major question, any tips would be really appreciated!!! Thanks a lot!!!

Vis

--------------------"15 minutes in freezing conditions?!?! You'd become a popsicle before you made that!!!"

Air with a high rh is heavier than normal dry air. Excess humidity drops where it can. I would suggest having it go in the top, then into a pvc T bar w/holes to give it an even spread, as it drops. Then, stagger the containers on racks beneath it.

Most people who haven't studied physics or chemistry find it hard to believe that humid air is lighter, or less dense, than dry air. How can the air become lighter if we add water vapor to it?

Scientists have known this for a long time. The first was Isaac Newton, who stated that humid air is less dense than dry air in 1717 in his book, Optics. But, other scientists didn't generally understand this until later in that century.

To see why humid air is less dense than dry air, we need to turn to one of the laws of nature the Italian physicist Amadeo Avogadro discovered in the early 1800s. In simple terms, he found that a fixed volume of gas, say one cubic meter, at the same temperature and pressure, would always have the same number of molecules no matter what gas is in the container. Most beginning chemistry books explain how this works.

Imagine a cubic foot of perfectly dry air. It contains about 78% nitrogen molecules, which each have an atomic weight of 28. Another 21% of the air is oxygen, with each molecule having an atomic weight of 32. The final one percent is a mixture of other gases, which we won't worry about. Molecules are free to move in and out of our cubic foot of air. What Avogadro discovered leads us to conclude that if we added water vapor molecules to our cubic foot of air, some of the nitrogen and oxygen molecules would leave ? remember, the total number of molecules in our cubic foot of air stays the same. The water molecules that replace nitrogen or oxygen have an atomic weight of 18. This is lighter than both nitrogen and oxygen. In other words, replacing nitrogen and oxygen with water vapor decreases the weight of the air in the cubic foot; that is, it's density decreases.

Wait a minute, you might say, "I know water's heavier than air." True, liquid water is heavier, or more dense, than air. But, the water that makes the air humid isn't liquid. It's water vapor, which is a gas that is lighter than nitrogen or oxygen.

Compared to the differences made by temperature and air pressure, humidity has a small effect on the air's density. But, humid air is lighter than dry air at the same temperature and pressure."

This is why the raccoon would never dispute anything Anno states. The raccoon now curls his tail betwwen his legs, slinks away, looking for something to dominate, capture & gnaw it's head off. lol...............

No one is perfect, nor 100% correct, all the time. The raccoon just figures, Anno would not knowingly make a miss/statement. And, would have hard evidence, to back up whatever he asserts. Otherwise, he would not make the statement.

After a night of drinking, debauchery & pondering about this subject . The raccoon drew some conclusions.

Rain is formed when water vapor in air comes togather to form large enough droplets, to become heavier than air. They then fall.

Dew is formed when water vapor in air comes in contact with an object & condenses on it.

It would at least seem benificial that a line from a humidifier suppling that humidity source into the top of a container, as when those water vapor particles came in contact with each other & grew larger, they would become heavier than air & drop.

If humid air was heavier than dry air, then think.....why are the clouds up so high.

Becuase its colder in the higher atmosphere, the rising humid air supercools (the colder air gets, the less water it can hold, and once the rh goes up to 100% water will start to precipitate out if the temp goes down further), and forms droplets at sites of nucleation. This can occur on blades of grass (which are actually sites of nucleation) and anyway, when water goes into or comes out of air... it has more to do with temperature than the altitude, pressure or other factors...